There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
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Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#2FTA: "The answers, which still require future research, ..." If I had a nickel for every study that included this line, I'd be rich!
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#3Related story from The Atlantic(2014)[1]. HN discussion about it[2].
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-dark-...
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#4Fake news. Literally just baseless blogging and then "future research is required" at the end
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#5This just in: thinking may be bad for you! Side effects include headaches, nausea, frustration, painful thoughts and existential dread.
More studies required before this is considered safe for the public!!!!! Caution!!!!! Caution!!!!! Caution!!!! Dont try this at home without expert supervision preferably costing $100/hr or more!
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#6FTA: "The answers, which still require future research, ..." If I had a nickel for every study that included this line, I'd be rich!
If I had another research grant for every time I'd written that line I'd be rich too...
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#7I wonder if some of this is due to the brain reacting to the sort of sensory deprivation that meditation entails. Meditation is quite hard work, because you are trying to prevent your unconscious mind from controlling your consciousness. With the latter 'cut off' from the normal constant input from the former, I wonder if it can sometimes react to that badly?
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#8When you are set in the between waking-and-dreaming state the reality becomes malleable and artificial, meditation allows this midway state filled with mental scenarios coming to surface at lower focus level. The condition is best described here(the focusing and persistence of hypnagogic process):
"In his book, Zen and the Brain, James H. Austin cites speculation that regular meditation develops a specialized skill of "freezing the hypnagogic process at later and later stages" of the onset of sleep, initially in the alpha wave stage and later in theta.[44]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#9The framing of this article is strange. It presents encountered emotions arrived at through meditation in a clinical setting, as if people may not expect underlying anxiety about their lives to emerge.
If anything, this speaks to the human propensity (both good and bad) to endure despite the stacking existential odds of the modern social order.
In other words, life is tough, it has always been tough, and there are many unpleasant aspects of all of our lives, even when one's life is seemingly chugging along just fine. Counter to the argument of the article, many who meditate are keenly aware of this full emotional spectrum -- it's the people who are jumping on the bandwagon that are surprised that mindfulness isn't all Lululemon peace and love, or something that will enhance your focus in pursuit of your next capitalist adventure.
Re: There’s a dark side to meditation that no one talks about
#10Zen priest Brad Warner talks about this quite a lot in his books and on his blog:
http://hardcorezen.info/bad-buddhism-part-a-million/586 (one example)
So I wouldn't say "no one" talks about it. It's more like, the people selling meditation as a cure for modern life are downplaying this stuff because they don't want to scare away people paying them to learn how to do it.